With the increasing concern over global warming due to the greenhouse effect, various energy sources are being considered to replace fossil fuels. One of these energy sources is hydrogen. However, hydrogen is highly reactive and presents serious storage problems.
A process in which the hydrogen is continually formed, much in the same manner as the production of electricity, would eliminate the storage problems. In this regard some researchers have suggested large scale electrolysis of water with the electricity required for the process being produced from solar power. However, such a method would require a substantial amount of electrical energy and a large scale solar electrical producing plant. Such a plant for producing hydrogen would be expensive to construct and would undoubtedly produce sufficient electrical energy for use directly thus eliminating the need for the additional step of water hydrolysis for the production of hydrogen. A n o t h e r suggestion to eliminate the hydrogen storage problem would be to utilize a hydrogen absorbing sponge metal. The hydrogen would then be stored in the sponge metal and would be subsequently released when needed. This storage method also poses problems with regard to the release of the hydrogen from the sponge metal and also in the expense of preparing and transporting the sponge metal to a location where the hydrogen is to be utilized.
It is highly desirable therefore to provide an efficient, low cost method for producing hydrogen utilizing relatively inexpensive reaction products on an as needed or continuous basis without the necessity of a storage facility.